Time for another status update of Philadelphia’s favorite poster child for trade bait: Kevin Kolb. Over the holiday weekend a few interesting reports came out. The first was an excellent article from Adam Caplan with contributions from Greg Cosell where they analyze Kolb’s play in each of his five starts at quarterback.

If you haven’t heard of him, Greg Cosell works for NFL Films and is very highly regarded as an excellent evaluator of quarterbacks. Adam Caplan is pretty good himself and they both give what is, in my opinion, an accurate and fair assessment of Kolb’s strengths and weaknesses at this point in his career.

Here is an excerpt from Greg Cosell in the article:

I think that overall, you see the same strengths and the same flaws in each game, just in varying degrees depending on the nature of the game. Ultimately, what you see is a quarterback, that when he can play within the rhythm of the offense, and where he can plant and throw, he can be a very efficient player.

When his first read is there, given the route combination and the defense, he’s very, very good. But when that first read is not quite there and he’s forced to reset and look elsewhere, I think he struggles and I think he starts to play a little too fast.

He starts to lose his pocket composure. He starts to lose his footwork and I think he starts to lose his downfield focus. You can tell in these types of situations that he’s not getting a clear picture when he has to reset. So, I think, overall, that’s Kolb at this point (in his career).

This could be what Andy Reid saw and ultimately played a large role in making his decision to play Vick. If so, this was a smart move by Reid for a few reasons.

One, is that if Reid felt Kolb was going to struggle heavily because of a porous offensive line, he may have saved his confidence as a player by not putting him in a bad position. Say what you will but if a quarterback loses confidence early in his career, he may never overcome it.

Reid always loves to say he needs to put his players in a better position, this time he may have actually done just that, albeit the better position was on the bench.

For two, Reid salvaged trade value for Kolb. By playing him less it reduced the possibilities of him playing more poorly and therefore creating a negative perception around the league. Not that he would have played poorly, but Vick stood a much better chance behind that line than Kolb ever could.

But all in all, Caplan and Cosell pretty much nail it as to where things stand on Kolb’s talent level. And more importantly, that he is still progressing and ultimately has the ability to take a team to a Super Bowl if put in the right situation.

On July 2nd, there was a report from a Seattle radio host named Dave Mahler saying that the Seahawks had offered a first and third-round draft pick for Kolb prior to April’s draft. The fact that Seattle is interested in Kolb certainly has credence as they were rumored to be strongly interested in both he and McNabb last year.

The interesting thing is that instead of going after a quarterback in the draft, Seattle instead spent their first two picks on offensive linemen. Could they have drafted them with the intention of providing a new quarterback the best protection they can?

When considering teams to go to, I’m sure the fact they invested in their line will weigh favorably with Kolb (not that he has the ultimate say in where he goes, but he should have some say if there are multiple choices).

If the offer was true, a first and third-round pick, that’s great value and therefore Seattle could ultimately be where he ends up.

Now for the latest Kevin Kolb rumor update:

Shawn Zobel of Draft Headquarters reports that he was “told” (presumptively by a credible source) that the Miami Dolphins are still in the running for Kolb despite a report back in May from the Miami Herald that indicated they weren’t interested in the Eagles back-up.

In his report, Zobel states that “the Dolphins could be willing to part ways with their 2012 first round pick in order to secure Kolb, who they hope would give them stability at the quarterback position, something that they have lacked for close to a decade“.

This makes sense to me. Before that Miami Herald report, I thought the Dolphins would, or perhaps should, be one of the teams that should go after Kolb. But they’ll have to do more than “could be willing to give up their first rounder” to land him.

If you remember, Dolphins coach Tony Sparano was placed in an extremely awkward position by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross when he flew out to California to interview Jim Harbaugh for a head coaching job.

Ross eventually apologized and then extended Sparano (for two years) but that doesn’t take away the fact that the Dolphins’ brass view him as expendable. But for the Dolphins to be competitive, they absolutely need to bring in a better quarterback.

2 Responses to Kevin Kolb Rumor Updates: Analysis, Seattle’s Offer, and Now Miami in the Mix?

Different regime in Miami now. But they definitely need to do something about their QB position…whether it’s Kolb or someone else. Henne is not the answer for them and they have to compete with the Pats and Jets.